Prior to the present invention, as set forth in general terms above and more specifically below, it is known, to employ various types of liquid or chemical systems to disinfect GI scopes. Furthermore, it is known that GI scopes must be cleaned every seven days even if the GI scope has not been used. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,872 by Yabe et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,675 by Wilk et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,399,273 by Moriyama et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,887,640 by Kawai et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,905,831 by Noguchi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,979,738 by Hsu et al., U.S. Pat. RE43,281 by Higuma et al., and U.S. Patent Application 2017/0119915 by Lin et al. While these various liquid or chemical systems for disinfecting GI scopes may have been generally satisfactory, there is nevertheless a need for a new and improved programmable device that can be used in conjunction with a gastro-intestinal (GI) scope, wherein the device is capable of disinfecting and sterilizing the GI scope by utilizing a programmable ultraviolet (UV) light source.
It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill these and other needs in the GI scope disinfecting and sterilizing art in a manner more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.